


To Become A King

by SwanFloatieKnight



Category: Parzival - Wolfram von Eschenbach
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Childhood Memories, Falling In Love, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kings & Queens, Knights - Freeform, M/M, Sad, Sorry it's just Herzeloyde, deep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 14:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20725784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwanFloatieKnight/pseuds/SwanFloatieKnight
Summary: As a child, Parzivâl has always dreamt of a king that would make him part of his Story.Years later, he finds out that in his own Story, he is the king himself.





	To Become A King

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tojund_for_us](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tojund_for_us/gifts), [Ganelon8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ganelon8/gifts).

> thank you, Tojund, for beta-reading <3 :*

A/N: I posted this fic on Ao3, and on Ao3 alone. If you read this on any other website or platform, please consider that I did not consent to this.

* * *

He still remembered his mother, even though she had been dead for years, long gone, and he learned about her death more than four years after her passing. It grieved him still, not only because he had been the reason for her death, but there was nothing he could do about it now. She was dead, after all.

But he still remembered her. Always had. Always would. She was his mother, the first person he had loved, and the only one, as he had thought for a long time. She was also the person he had hated for keeping him hidden from the world, in the forest, away from the courtly life of the knight he later became. At the same time, he knew very well that she had only tried to protect him. She had always wanted the best for him, and she hadn’t wanted to lose him like she had lost his father. Her son should not die in a tournament, or at war, or by the hands of another knight in some duel, fighting for mere honour. She wanted him to live. Could he really blame her for that?

He had missed nothing in his childhood. Of course, he also had not known about a lot of things. Knights, for example. Nobody had ever told him, so he had been taken by surprise when he had first seen the strange men, dressed in shiny metal, dashing through the forest, and he had thought them to be Gods. They had laughed at him, but in a nice way, and told him about knights and about a King that could make you a knight.

This was the first time he thought he understood what a king was good for. When his mother had told him about kings in her bedtime stories, he had never known why you should need a person to rule about others. He also had never understood why they had no king in Soltane, and why they didn’t need one. Herzeloyde had tried to tell him that no king would ever care about them, and therefore they need not care for the kings.

Nonetheless, he had loved these stories about Kings that his mother had told him. These kings were wise and just and always kind and friendly to everyone. They had to solve problems in their kingdoms, to avoid conflicts and look after their people. The kings in these stories did care, what was the most confusing aspect for Parzivâl. They were always ready to help.

These stories had made him dream of another life, far away from here, flying as free as the birds, visiting far away lands. And they had made him wish for a king or a prince that would one day come and lead him away, to his castle, far away from Soltane. Years later, he would find out that he would take a different place in his own story. That he was meant to become a king himself.

But it took a long time for this day to come. And when he had met knights in the forest, and after he was told that a king could make someone a knight, he had decided that if the king would not come to him, then he would come to the king. He wanted to become a knight. He wanted to search for his prince himself, if said prince did not come to him. He wanted to live all the adventures he had ever dreamt of, unknowingly. He finally knew what the stirring in his chest meant that always awoke when he heard the birds singing in the trees.

He wanted to be free. So he left Soltane, never to return. He also left his mother and his childhood behind. Sometimes, you have to take a step when deep down you know you will never be able to go back. Maybe he would not have left if he had known what it would cost. That he would never see Herzeloyde again. But he did not know, and so he did not turn.

One day, this strange thing called the Grail turned up, and from this very moment on, everything was confusing and a little frightening. After he was told a little more about the grail he was still confused and even more frightened. Suddenly, there were expectations he had failed despite he did not even know about them, there were missed chances and a curse that laid heavy upon his shoulders. Suddenly, he felt terribly afraid and lonely, and he couldn’t think of anything else than riding off, searching for the Grail and trying to fix what he had broken unknowingly.

At about the same time, Gâwân showed up and claimed a place in his life and in his heart. This had confused him at first, too, because there was another new feeling in his chest, besides his ever-present longing for freedom. There was a tingling sensation every time he looked at the tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed knight. A sensation he felt in his whole body, but mainly in his chest. It made his heart flutter and his head spin.

After a while, he noticed that Gâwân looked at him the same way he looked at Gâwân, he became incredibly nervous and happy at the same time. He could believe that he finally had found a prince that he could fall in love with. And the prince fell in love with him, too.

He had become a knight. He had met a prince. He had fallen in love, and he was lucky enough that the person he had chosen to love returned his feelings. He was as free as a bird, for a short while, and his life seemed to be perfect. And then, the Grail became the most important thing in his life, and he did not see Gâwân again for a very long time. For almost five years to be precise.

He did not know how he had managed it in the end. But somehow, he found himself in a place he had never dared to dream of. He had conquered the Grail, even though so many people had told him this would never be possible. Gâwân was still at his side and he was glad about this. He was his prince, and they loved each other. But now, Parzivâl was no longer the stranger, the peasant boy that fell in love with a nobleman. He had found his place in the bedtime stories he had loved so much as a child, and it was a place he had never expected.

After years of looking up to the heroes of his stories, he had become a king himself.


End file.
